What Is The Extent of Beatles Outtakes on Bootlegs?
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The "Crossing of Abbey Road" bootleg I received from West German has kind of piqued my interest in what's out there and how it got there. I know that with RockBand the original master multi-track tapes have been revisitted as well though I don't know to what extent the individual tracks have been made available. So my question is this: The Crossing of Abbey Road offeres som interesting outtakes of songs, studio chatter, guide vocals, and assorted "stuff," I'm assuming that there's much more in the cans (metal containers that hold the tapes--though I understand that Abbey Road has converted much of these tapes to digital)...how much of these tapes are available out there as bootlegs? Has anyone made an effort to catalog what is out there. And more interestingly, how does this stuff get leaked?? One would think the Abbey Road stuff would be under lock and key. I do know that some additional takes were made available on Anthology. I have bootlegs called "Alternative Help!" etc on a "label" called Pear which is green. I have seen "alternate" sets under a "label" called Sapple. I have heard of a "label" called Orange. Is there a definitive list of what's available? Of course Apple could put all of these bootleg "labels" out of business by the releasing the outtakes as part of a Deluxe set for each album much like Macca has done with his albums. This would be the ultimate collector's version. You can learn a lot about the Beatles and the process they went through to lay down and refine tracks in the studio. It's amazing how polished the released tracks are compared to some of the intermediate work, which is a credit to them, George Martin, and the engineers, not to mention the mastering of the albums.
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There's A TON of outtakes on bootlegs...Abbey Road is actually the album that has the least, but for the rest almost every outtake is available. I've got just about every collection I can get my hands on and the amount of outtakes and alternate versions on there are staggering. I even have the entire month of January 1969 (96 hours!) of Get Back sessions...I've yet to make it all the way through that yet but I intend to.
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That's awesome! Do you have a definitive list on your site? I'd love to see someone doing a proper cataloging of what's available. Any idea how these tracks get leaked? One would think they'd be pretty tightly controlled.
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Erik in NJ:
That's awesome! Do you have a definitive list on your site? I'd love to see someone doing a proper cataloging of what's available. Any idea how these tracks get leaked? One would think they'd be pretty tightly controlled.
Just be careful about revealing too much about any bootleg sources on this website. We love our bootlegs and do not care to see Paul's lawyers shutting down websites or going after anyone. It's also against forum rules. "Please do not post or advertise direct links to unauthorized copies of performances, download/Bootleg sites. Anything posted of this nature is subject to removal." Yeah I know, party pooper...major drag, blah blah blah.
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beatlesfanrandy:
Erik in NJ:
That's awesome! Do you have a definitive list on your site? I'd love to see someone doing a proper cataloging of what's available. Any idea how these tracks get leaked? One would think they'd be pretty tightly controlled.
Just be careful about revealing too much about any bootleg sources on this website. We love our bootlegs and do not care to see Paul's lawyers shutting down websites or going after anyone. It's also against forum rules. "Please do not post or advertise direct links to unauthorized copies of performances, download/Bootleg sites. Anything posted of this nature is subject to removal." Yeah I know, party pooper...major drag, blah blah blah.
Yes, a good idea to mention that, but yes, there is so much out there. The craziest stuff I've heard is White Album monitor mixes that feature Yoko's personal phone conversations in the background where she describes, let's say, intimate details about her and John to a friend. ops:
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There are tons of outtakes out there thanks to the internet, but I'm not so much interested in outtakes as in live performances. I have a DVD of 13 live concerts they did around the world. From Washington DC 1964 to Palais des Sports '65 and Tokyo '66...Those are fantastic and fascinating to watch. Especially how good they were in spite of technical problems and screaming. This is the stuff I hope Apple will release officially some day.
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beatlesfanrandy:
There are tons of outtakes out there thanks to the internet, but I'm not so much interested in outtakes as in live performances. I have a DVD of 13 live concerts they did around the world. From Washington DC 1964 to Palais des Sports '65 and Tokyo '66...Those are fantastic and fascinating to watch. Especially how good they were in spite of technical problems and screaming. This is the stuff I hope Apple will release officially some day.
One DVD for all the live concerts? They even have individual DVds for each concert...heck for each segment of their life. There are DVDs with all the videos they made. Sets of them for The Beatles & then for each individual solo Beatle. Then even put videos to each album. Heck...they've (the bootleg labels) had 50 years to do all this!
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beatlesfanrandy:
There are tons of outtakes out there thanks to the internet, but I'm not so much interested in outtakes as in live performances. I have a DVD of 13 live concerts they did around the world. From Washington DC 1964 to Palais des Sports '65 and Tokyo '66...Those are fantastic and fascinating to watch. Especially how good they were in spite of technical problems and screaming. This is the stuff I hope Apple will release officially some day.
Agreed, while I do like the outtakes, the live stuff is just as exciting and interesting. (listening to some right now as I type this, as a matter of fact!)
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Hi guys, Thanks for the input. Yes, it seems there's a lot of "outtakes" out there whatever the source it. I know (and own) some great books on every single Apple release and being a completist it's great that someone has taken the time to catalog every official release. I guess my point was (or question really) -- is there a definitive list of what outtakes, studio snippets, etc are available. In other words I have a bootleg with Take 38 or 39 of Something. That means there were at least 37 prior takes. I'm not sure if they recorded over takes they did not like or whether all of the takes were kept. The problem with just 8 tracks and analog equipment is that as you bounce tracks you start introducing tape hiss. I'm not sure if they were running the tape at such a high ips (inches per second) such that the introduced noise was negligent. I don't think DBX was invented and I'm not sure they were using Dolby at Apple or in general. Anyway, the bottom line is is there any sort of inventory at least of what takes have been leaked and are available through various sources or what takes actually still exist that have not been leaked? The bootlegs I have are so fragmentary and there seems to be so many bootlegs--I find it kind of silly to listen to say take 9, then take 37, then the RockBand mix...
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Ah, I see what you mean. I'm not sure if there's a list or not, just like I'm not sure if there are all 38 takes of Something. However, there are some songs where EVERY take is available and trust me, after a while, they get old...not every take was a good one!
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DrBeatle:
Ah, I see what you mean. I'm not sure if there's a list or not, just like I'm not sure if there are all 38 takes of Something. However, there are some songs where EVERY take is available and trust me, after a while, they get old...not every take was a good one!
Yes, most weren't good at all and some are quite rough But they are very interesting for posterity and also as a window into their creative process, you know seeing the song evolve from a demo to the finished product. I particularly like when Lennon changes the lyrics to ceratin songs and then starts to crack up in the middle of the take. I also really like to listed to the studio banter between them and with the engineers.
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The banter is the best part of some of them!
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favoritething:
beatlesfanrandy:
Erik in NJ:
That's awesome! Do you have a definitive list on your site? I'd love to see someone doing a proper cataloging of what's available. Any idea how these tracks get leaked? One would think they'd be pretty tightly controlled.
Just be careful about revealing too much about any bootleg sources on this website. We love our bootlegs and do not care to see Paul's lawyers shutting down websites or going after anyone. It's also against forum rules. "Please do not post or advertise direct links to unauthorized copies of performances, download/Bootleg sites. Anything posted of this nature is subject to removal." Yeah I know, party pooper...major drag, blah blah blah.
Yes, a good idea to mention that, but yes, there is so much out there. The craziest stuff I've heard is White Album monitor mixes that feature Yoko's personal phone conversations in the background where she describes, let's say, intimate details about her and John to a friend. ops:
Well, that's what you get when you sit on the speaker and/or super glue yourself to your husband's hip during recording!
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DrBeatle:
The banter is the best part of some of them!
Outtake example: In movie Let It Be, Paul & John have a fake altercation with the engineer. John: "We're f**king stars, man!" I'm sure most of you have seen this bit on you tube. I forget exactly what Paul says, but it's equally as funny!
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The 20 minutes or so of them goofing around trying to get the vocals right for "Think For Yourself" are a riot, too.
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Erik in NJ:
Hi guys, Thanks for the input. Yes, it seems there's a lot of "outtakes" out there whatever the source it. I know (and own) some great books on every single Apple release and being a completist it's great that someone has taken the time to catalog every official release. I guess my point was (or question really) -- is there a definitive list of what outtakes, studio snippets, etc are available. In other words I have a bootleg with Take 38 or 39 of Something. That means there were at least 37 prior takes. I'm not sure if they recorded over takes they did not like or whether all of the takes were kept. The problem with just 8 tracks and analog equipment is that as you bounce tracks you start introducing tape hiss. I'm not sure if they were running the tape at such a high ips (inches per second) such that the introduced noise was negligent. I don't think DBX was invented and I'm not sure they were using Dolby at Apple or in general. Anyway, the bottom line is is there any sort of inventory at least of what takes have been leaked and are available through various sources or what takes actually still exist that have not been leaked? The bootlegs I have are so fragmentary and there seems to be so many bootlegs--I find it kind of silly to listen to say take 9, then take 37, then the RockBand mix...
I'm pretty sure there is a book about The Beatles Bootlegs out there, one at least, maybe several. All it takes is some research if you're interested.
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DrBeatle:
The 20 minutes or so of them goofing around trying to get the vocals right for "Think For Yourself" are a riot, too.
I would love to see a totally uncut version of Let It Be! I know they took hundreds of hours of film!
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Nancy R:
DrBeatle:
The 20 minutes or so of them goofing around trying to get the vocals right for "Think For Yourself" are a riot, too.
I would love to see a totally uncut version of Let It Be! I know they took hundreds of hours of film!
Me too! I have about 10 copies of Let It Be thru Let It End. I even have a version with a voice over commenting on scenes.
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beatlesfanrandy:
I'm pretty sure there is a book about The Beatles Bootlegs out there, one at least, maybe several. All it takes is some research if you're interested.
OK, thanks I will check it out. I figured I'd kick it to the experts first
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DrBeatle:
Ah, I see what you mean. I'm not sure if there's a list or not, just like I'm not sure if there are all 38 takes of Something. However, there are some songs where EVERY take is available and trust me, after a while, they get old...not every take was a good one!
Yes, sometimes the take callouts were jokes. There weren't over 100 takes of "Not Guilty" (probably just felt like it).